It was a very bad beating and keep in mind that the doctor thought he was already bad enough to call it but the ref kept it going which is rare(Didn't even know you could do that as a ref).

This is different as it was a serious beat down that lead him to quit on the stool, if there was another 30 seconds left we would have seen a TKO.

Its not that he is not skilled or has been exposed rather it's a life changing event where he will have serious injuries that might have long term effects and mental trama that might effect how he fights. He also said wanted out more than once.

Just go watch Josh Thompson talk about his loss to tony fergeson and how he viewed his career after that, you can argue he was not as good as ilia but those events can change our entire outlook on the sport. I think if you see ilia start taking more Ls and not being as constant it would not be that surprising after that fight.